Field recording is the majority of sound in this piece, as all the sound stems from noise in the city. I started thinking about where to record, when to record, and how I should go about it. Below is a list of the places I will like to record. I have gathered them into categories of what noise I would like to record.
Elephant & Castle Roundabout – The Elephant & Castle roundabout is full of noise normally, but since a large construction site has started working, the noise is monolithic. This would be great to record to show how unbearably loud the city can be. Since it is also a roundabout there is no shortage of traffic and blaring noise, so this will be my recording location for the upper ground noise.
London Underground – The London Underground provides us with the most Dissonant, Unnerving, and loud sounds we hear in London. The Underground can sound like a horror movie soundtrack, especially when mixed with a crowded train where you cannot move. The Jubilee, Central, Victoria and Bakerloo lines have been reported to be the loudest lines, exceeding 110db on some occasions. I’ve personally found the Jubilee line, and Bakerloo line to be the loudest in my experience, so I will be recording those lines. I will be recording using a Zoom H5 field recorder, as they are portable and have decent sound quality. I will also be running a contact microphone through the zoom H5, to record the vibrations of the train. These recordings, in particular the contact microphone recordings, could be manipulated in a daw.